WhatsApp starts new feature to let users identify forwarded messages

The Facebook-owned messaging service has been under vast pressure to curb the spread of misinformation in India after the lynching of more than 20 people accused of child abduction in the last two months. The good thing is the app analyzes the link "locally" which means WhatsApp does not transmit any data to server ensuring that company takes care of the encryption of the messages.

All of the incidents reportedly fuelled by messages circulated via WhatsApp which subsequently became viral and led to deaths of several people.

To see this new forwarded label, the users need to have the latest supported version of WhatsApp on their phones. Apparently aimed at blocking spams and fake news, it helps users identify suspicious links (both sent and received) within the messaging application.

"Together we can fight false information", read full-page advertisements in some top English language-newspapers, part of a series that will also feature in regional-language dailies. Whatsapp came under scrutiny after it was found out that more than a dozen people got killed in a mob violence across five states of India due to the misinformation which was being spread through Whatsapp in the last two months.

WhatsApp responded the same day, saying it wanted to work with the government to tackle the spread of fake news.

WhatsApp has enabled a feature which will indicate that a certain message has been forwarded, and not created by the sender. When you click on the former, then the participants will not be able to send messages, photos, video etc to the group.

WhatsApp on Tuesday said it is rolling out a new feature that will let its users identify the messages that are forwarded, as the popular messaging app looks to combat fake news and false information in India. The company is also offering a $50,000 grant to academics who study the spread of misinformation and help the firm fix it.

The report further suggests that WhatsApp will also bring a new feature that will allow users to manually report a suspicious link via the platform itself.

Meanwhile in Brazil, where 120 million of the country's 200 million citizens use the app, the feature has already been working in some groups of beta users.

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